Mailbox

Dear editor
There are many rumors out there about the West Branch Fitness & Community Center, or the “W,” as it’s commonly called, making the hurdles that the W is trying to work through even more challenging. We would like to take this opportunity to dispel those rumors.
At a recent West Branch Township board meeting, it was decided to have a group look at the viability of the W. It is not the goal of the township board or members of the group to close the W. The goal is to review the information and options available and come up with a financially responsible recommendation for the township to consider.
We have been asked to review financial stability of the W, impact of the W on West Branch Township’s financial status, options for revenue generation, strategic planning recommendations, and only in case these efforts are unsuccessful, a responsible plan for an exit strategy. We are considering cost saving measures, fundraising options, grants, membership and community involvement. We would like to reinforce that the exit strategy is one piece of the request that was given to us.
Most importantly, we would like to let everyone know the great community impact that the W has—not only on the community at K.I. Sawyer, but also on Negaunee, Ishpeming, Marquette and even Delta and Alger counties. These areas all have residents who use the W.
The W is not just a place to swim or shoot hoops. It’s truly a community service organization with a huge impact. The facility offers services for youth, adults and seniors, including after-school and summer programs; youth mentoring, leadership; senior events; practice gyms and tournament for basketball, wrestling, volleyball and swimming; one of the largest pools in the U.P. for water aerobics, diving and rehab therapy; health education programs; and lessons in music, swimming and kayaking, to name just a few. These are in addition to the typical gym expectations like weightlifting, exercise equipment, two full-size basketball courts, indoor walking track and racquetball. Please help us in dispelling the rumors. Come check out the W. We think you’ll be impressed with the facility and programs offered. For questions or to volunteer or contribute, call the W at 346-3559 or West Branch Township at 942-7400.
Lisa Johnson, Skandia

Dear editor
As a former Wisconsin resident, I find it interesting that Kennecott Mining Company touts their Flambeau metallic sulfide mine in Ladysmith (Wisconsin) to promote their proposed metallic sulfide mine in Marquette County. 
Your readers should be aware of these facts:
• Tax revenue to Ladysmith, Town of Grant and Rusk County from 1989 to 1999 was less than one percent of the profits garnered by the mining company.
• Much of the “investment” claimed by mining promoters actually was state and federal development money coming out of tax dollars.
• In the year with the greatest local employment by the mining company, 1993, the annual unemployment rate for Rusk County shot up to 11.8 percent, over three times the statewide jobless rate of 3.1 percent.
• At peak operation, the Flambeau Mine only employed about forty “local” residents, some of whom actually were long-term Kennecott employees, brought into the area early to establish local residency, and itinerant miners.
• While most of western Wisconsin saw unprecedented growth between 1989 and 1997, the years of mine operation, the population of Ladysmith decreased, Rusk County ranked next to last in western Wisconsin property values, ranked third in violent juvenile crime and had the lowest per capita income in the state.
• Ladysmith’s economic gains compared with other north central Wisconsin communities over the same period show that a metallic sulfide mine does not draw people to an area to recreate, relocate and spend money like communities with recreational assets. People don’t vacation at a metallic sulfide mine and the community suffers.
If Ladysmith is an example, the claim of economic gain and influx of capital from a metallic sulfide mine is a myth. The profits and jobs went out of the town, county, state and country along with the gold, copper and silver. What stayed was pollution, affecting tourism, property values and jobs. 
In addition to the serious environmental and health risks associated with a metallic sulfide mine, your readers along with city, county and state leaders should ask if this community will be economically worse off with a metallic sulfide mine in its backyard.
Merrill Horswill, Big Bay

Munising Bay Winter Art Festival Call for Artists
Artists are encouraged to register for the Munising Bay Winter Art Festival, scheduled to take place from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on November 10. Events will be held indoors at the Munising High School. All crafters, artists, musicians and nonprofit food vendors are encouraged to sign up. All mediums of art, crafts and food items will be accepted at this show. All work must be handcrafted or homemade. Commercially made products are unacceptable.
Preregistration is required. To receive a registration form, call 387-5070 or e-mail autumn65202@yahoo.com
The Munising Bay Art Festival is sponsored by the new Munising Bay Arts Association. The Association is a group comprised of many local citizens, businesses and organizations dedicated to enhancing art and culture in Munising.

Hiawatha Music Co-op presents Karen Savoca concert
The Hiawatha Music Co-op will present singer/songwriter Karen Savoca with Pete Heitzman at 7:30 p.m. on October 12, at the Marquette Senior High School Little Theater, 1203 West Fair Avenue.
Adult tickets are $13 in advance and $16 at the door. Tickets for children twelve and younger are $10 in advance and $13 at the door.
Tickets are available in Marquette at the Marquette Food Co-op, Dead River Coffee and  the Hiawatha Music Co-op office. Tickets may be ordered at www.hiawathamusic.org and by phone from the Music Co-op during office hours at 226-8575.

Realtor gives to Marquette General Foundation
Northern Michigan Land Brokers, presented a pair of checks to the Marquette General Foundation from money raised through the “Foundations Building Foundations” program in the Marquette General Foundation.
For every property Brian Olson sells either for or to a Marquette General employee or physician, he is contributing ten percent of his commission to the Marquette General Foundation’s Grateful Patients and Families Program. For details, visit www.mgh.org/foundation or call 225-6914 or toll-free at (866)906-6914.

Flying in the Upper Peninsula just got faster, easier
American Eagle, the regional affiliate of American Airlines, will begin nonstop jet service between Milwaukee and Sawyer on December 13.
American Eagle will operate one daily round trip between the two cities, using a fifty-seat Embraer jet.
The schedule for the new service is as follows:
• Flight 4096 from Milwaukee to Sawyer departs at 8:00 p.m. and arrives at 10:05 p.m. daily, except Saturday.
• Flight 4104 from Sawyer to Milwaukee departs at 7:15 a.m. and arrives at 7:15 a.m. daily, except Saturday.
American Eagle has a heavy maintenance base located at the Sawyer International Airport that services its Embraer aircraft and has more than 200 employees. American Eagle will discontinue service between Madison and Marquette on December 13.
Supported by three additional flights to the flight schedule to accommodate summer travelers, airport officials report the three-month period of June, July and August was the best summer season for passenger traffic, noting an increase of approximately 67.65 percent since Marquette.

Community center Makes a Difference for troops
The West Branch Fitness & Community Center, in partnership with Cards and Care Packages for Troops founder and chairperson Sherry Nutt and Boy Scout Troop Pack #356 of Skandia, will sponsor a day signing cards, packaging goods and collecting financial donations on October 27 as a part of National “Make A Difference Day.”
The goal for this year is to send more than 45,000 cards. Individuals and families from around the Upper Peninsula are encouraged to travel to be a part of this monumental event and visit the Air Force Heritage Museum while at the “W.”
To mail donations or receive more information about the Cards and Care Packages for Troops Project, call 346-6971.

Foundation partners on dialysis awareness initiative
The Hemodialysis Unit at Marquette General Hospital and the Marquette General Foundation have teamed up on a Friends of Dialysis awareness initiative to help raise money and purchase new machines for the unit.
The fourteen-station Hemodialysis Unit serves Marquette, Alger and Baraga counties. As a Regional Medical Center, the Marquette General Hemodialysis Unit also provides acute critical treatments for all U.P. dialysis patients.
The unit has an immediate need to replace five of its twenty-one machines. New equipment will experience less downtime and interruptions for Marquette General’s dialysis patients. For many, dialysis is a lifesaving treatment needed three times a week to remove harmful waste products from the blood.
Donation forms are available in the Marquette General Hospital Hemodialysis Unit, in the Marquette General Foundation office and at www.mgh.org/foundation
For details, call 225-3263, or (800)562-9753, ext. 3263 or e-mail jlajoie@mgh.org

Regional nonprofits gather to learn, share information
The third annual U.P. Nonprofit Conference will be held on October 19 at NMU’s University Center.
The conference offers regional nonprofit leaders, staff, board members and volunteers the opportunity to network, attend workshops, share ideas and fire up the passions that drive their nonprofit missions and visions.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Keys to Collaboration.”
The keynote speaker for the conference is Jon Terry, Triangle2 Partners, LLC in Washington, D.C. Terry is a partner at Triangle2 where he leads the government relations practice, helping nonprofit organizations get their message to elected leaders in the capitol, producing tangible results in support of their federal policy priorities.
Registration for the conference is $80 for GLCYD members and $110 for not-yet members. Exhibitor opportunities also are available at the conferences. For details, visit www.glcyd.org or call (877)339-6884, ext. 25.

Hemingway exhibit comes to Munising school library
The Munising School Public Library will be hosting the traveling exhibit, “Up North with the Hemingways” as part of the Great Michigan Read. The exhibit will be showcased in the library through October 15.
Featured are thirteen banners highlighting rare photos and items from the Hemingway family and other archives which relate to the Hemingways’ summers in northern Michigan between 1898 and 1921. The exhibit is open to the public.

Upper Michigan poem
When thirteen-year-old Trevor Russell was asked to participate in the National 2006-07 Reflections Program, it didn’t take him long to decide the topic for his literature entry—The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Trevor, the son of Marquette native Mary Leach Russell and Tom Russell, has been spending summers in the U.P. his entire life. Grandparents and Marquette residents David and Helen Leach welcome him and his family to their camp on Lake Michigamme every year.
Trevor, an eighth grade student at Corona del Mar Middle School, wrote about these observations in a poem for the Reflections contest at his school. His poem received the Award of Excellence for the Literature Division at the regional Harbor Council PTA Reflections Program for the Middle Grades 6 to 8.

My Favorite Place by Trevor Russell
Upper Michigan—the place that matters most to me,
Beautiful lakes and forests as far as the eye can see,
The sky as blue as a Finn’s eye, as clear as glass;
Stars twinkle in the luminous, ebony atmosphere.
The fresh-tasting air is crystal clear.
Lakes full of splashing and rolling whitecaps,
Glassy water without a wrinkle,
Filled with fish escaping hungry fishermen,
Ski boats, fishing boats, pontoons, and canoes cruise the blue waters.
Playful deer, hungry bears and shy moose run through the dense forests.
Trees stand green and tall; they rustle and sing as the wind moves through them.
They are full of chirping birds.
Proud bald eagles soar through the sky above their treetop nests.
Grey smoke from a burning campfire spreads through the fresh air.
Sticky, sweet-tasting s’mores cook over the warming campfire.
People gather around and watch the embers burn,
Tell tales of ghosts, fun times, the past and the future,
They watch the still, silent, black and starry sky.
Upper Michigan is my favorite place in the world.

Funding awarded for stewardship education program
The Superior Watershed Partnership in cooperation with the Marquette Alger Regional Education Service Agency has been awarded $20,000 from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust (GLFT) to develop a strategy to actively involve K-12 teachers and students in the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes through hands-on stewardship education and community action.
The goal of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative is to increase awareness and understanding of the ecology of the Great Lakes so that Michigan residents become active stewards of Great Lakes and advocates for strategies that support the long-term sustainability of the Great Lakes fisheries.
Through this award, Superior Watershed Partnership and MARESA will encourage collaboration among local community organizations and K-12 schools to advance the goal of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative.
The Superior Watershed Partnership is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and improving the natural resources of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on a watershed basis; by promoting responsible individual and community actions that ensure a sustainable environment, encourage a sustainable economy and help improve the quality of life.
People of all ages, professions, educational backgrounds and income levels spoke as one this week when the overwhelming majority told state regulators in no uncertain terms that permitting a metallic sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains would be a grave mistake.
Over the course of four days of public hearings in Marquette County, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality listened as everyday citizens including doctors, engineers, lawyers and even miners spoke of air quality, water pollutants, quality of life and an abiding love for Lake Superior and the Yellow Dog Plains.
What they heard very little of was support for the proposed mine. A handful of individuals with direct financial ties to the proposed mine spoke in favor of the project but were far outnumbered by opponents who expressed concern about the applications submitted by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company and informed skepticism for mining company promises.
Written testimony will be received through October 17. For details, visit www.SaveTheWildUP.org

‘Upper Peninsula as Home,’ exhibit stops at MACC
Marquette Arts and Culture Center hosting the traveling show “A Celebration of the Upper Peninsula As Home,” an exhibition organized and sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, honoring the “voices of UP artists, as an act of love and concern for the land and its protection” through October 11.
This invitational show curated by Christine Saari of Marquette and Joyce Koskenmaki of Hancock includes eleven artists who live and work in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Four of the artists—Ron Lukey, Patrick St. Germain, Vicki Allison Phillips and Christine Saari—are from Marquette.
For details, call 228-0472.

Turtle Island Project focuses on key media concerns
Racism, poverty, teen suicide on reservations, the derogatory perversion of American Indian names on Minnesota rivers and other locations across the country, and learning respect for the environment from Earth-based cultures were among the topics discussed at a Native American Roundtable recently in northern Michigan.
Sponsored by the Turtle Island Project, a nonprofit based in the Upper Peninsula, the conference was held at the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.
The reasons for a shocking increase in teen suicides at American Indian reservations were discussed including the 600 attempts and fifteen deaths over the past two years at the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The discussion included whether media coverage of the suicides would be different if the victims were white teenagers.

Local groups offer parenting classes, starting in October
Teaching Family Homes, in conjunction with Silver Creek Church, United Way and Great Parents/Great Start is presenting “Common Sense Parenting for Toddlers and Preschoolers,” beginning at 7:00 p.m. on October 10.
The sessions are for parents who want to build on their existing parenting skills or want to learn new ways to deal with their children’s behaviors.
There are eight one-and-a-half-hour sessions to the course. Parents can learn, practice and demonstrate new parenting skills.
Register by calling 249-5437.

Join in the ‘One Book, One Community’ celebration
Join in the One Book, One Community celebration of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
Book discussions will be held at 7:00 p.m. on the following times and locations: October 4 at the Coffee Cup, October 11 at Dead River Coffee, October 18 at Babycakes, October 25 at Harbor Light Café and November 14 at Chapter Two.
For details, visit www.nmu.edu/onebookmqt

Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure, exhibits and auctions
Local artist Diana Magnuson from Marquette is one of 200 children’s book illustrators who has joined Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure to design and transform a five-inch wooden snowflake into an original piece of art to be displayed in two galleries and auctioned off online to support sarcoma research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure was developed by children’s book author and illustrator Grace Lin. Just after getting married, her husband Robert Mercer was diagnosed with sarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue and bone.
While Mercer was receiving treatment, Lin told him a bedside story about a mouse that couldn’t go outside to play in the snow. The story grew into a children’s book, titled Robert’s Snow. When Lin was finishing the artwork for the book, her husband had a relapse, so her colleagues rallied to create Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure to increase awareness about sarcoma and to raise research funding. Mercer passed away in August 2007, but Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure continues as a legacy to his life.
Like actual snowflakes, each of the designs is unique. To preview the snowflakes online and to place a bid, go to www.robertssnow.com

Fayette Historic State Park gets help from its friends
In the two years since the Friends of Fayette Historic Townsite became an affiliate chapter of the Friends of Michigan History in partnership with the Michigan Historical Museum System, much good, creative work has been done to further the Friends’ mission of raising public awareness and furthering the understanding, restoration and interpretation of Fayette.
Last year, Friends of Fayette secretary and author Donna Winters offered a $2,500 incentive, challenging the Friends of Fayette to raise a matching amount by December 31, 2006. Through donations and membership fees, the Friends successfully met the match and acquired a $2,500 contribution through Great Lakes Romances at www.greatlakesromances.com
No contribution is too small. To find out more about the Friends of Fayette Historic Townsite and how to help preserve the site for future generations, visit www.michigan.gov/fayettetownsite
Fayette Historic Townsite is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Labor Day through mid-October. Admission is by Michigan state park permit. For details, call 644-2603 or visit www.michigan.gov/fayettetownsite

Finnish comedy performance set at Negaunee High School
“Nyt Naura—Now Laugh,” with the Suomalainen Sisters Linda, Sherry and Kris, will present a program of entirely new comical reminiscing at 7:00 p.m. on October 26 at the Negaunee High School auditorium.
Tickets are $6 at the door; children twelve and younger are free. Enjoy coffee and coffeebread (“pulla”) following their performance. The event is sponsored by the U.P. Chapter of the League of Finnish-American Societies.     Call 485-1971 for details.

MACC hosts annual Art Stroll on October 4 in Marquette
From 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on October 4, the Marquette Arts and Culture Center is sponsoring the sixth annual Art Stroll, a self-guided tour to area art galleries and artist’s studios.
Food, entertainment and raffles will be a part of the evening’s festivities. Maps are available at the Marquette Arts and Culture Center in the lower level of the Peter White Public Library, by calling 228-0472, e-mailing arts@mqtcty.org, visiting www.mqtcty.org or at participating artist studios and galleries.
That same evening, the Downtown Marquette Association is hosting their annual downtown Marquette October Stroll. Downtown restaurants and bars will have special food, entertainment and prizes for those who participate.
The Community Room in the Peter White Public Library will host Les Ross and the Finnish-American All-Stars from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The cost is $2.
New this year is an arts passport for kids. Passports can be picked up at the Marquette Arts and Culture Center the evening of the stroll and youth can get stamps at some of the stops along the art stroll.
Passports can be checked at the Marquette Downtown Commons building and all participants will receive prizes and be eligible for the grand prize drawings featuring several youth prizes.
For details, call 228-0472 or visit www.mqtcty.org

Tidbits from the desk of U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow
• U.S. senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan) announced that three Michigan organizations have been awarded $116,356 through the Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFGP). The funding will be used to support operations and firefighter safety, including $60,088 to the Michigamme/Spurr Volunteer Fire Department.
• Stabenow and Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) introduced the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Treatment Acceleration Act of 2007, which would provide federal support to nonprofit organizations dedicated to discovering a treatment for SMA, which is the No. 1 genetic killer of children under the age of two.
• Stabenow and Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina) announced that the Senate has passed their resolution unanimously, designating September as “National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.” This year alone, an estimated 15,000 women will die of ovarian cancer, and 20,000 more women will be diagnosed with the disease.
• Stabenow announced passage of the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, legislation that will provide more than $20 billion in increased funding for college aid nationwide and $676 million in new tuition grants for students in Michigan over the next five years. The bill now goes to the President for his signature.
• Stabenow announced passage of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2008. The legislation signals a major victory in Stabenow’s ongoing battle to fully fund veterans’ health care. This critical legislation addresses key shortcomings in the veterans’ health system by increasing investments in medical services for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, addressing the claims backlog in the VA system, and investing in VA facilities to prevent another Walter Reed incident.
• Stabenow and Levin announced that Marquette County will receive $116,537 to provide students with the skills they need to avoid gang pressure and youth violence. The funds were awarded under the Department of Justice FY 2007 Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program.
• Stabenow announced final passage of her bipartisan provision that would put an end to frivolous petitions used by brand drug companies to delay the entrance of generic drugs into the marketplace, robbing consumers and businesses of affordable choices. The delayed access to lower priced generics costs employers, health insurance providers, government health programs and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. The provision was part of the larger Food and Drug Administration Authorization Bill and will now go to the President for his signature. 
• Stabenow announced President Bush will include the Mortgage Relief Act in his initiative to assist homeowners damaged by troubled mortgages. The Mortgage Relief Act, introduced in May by Stabenow, would change current law that forces individuals to pay an income tax when they have had a part of their mortgage loan forgiven or have been forced to foreclose because of their inability to pay their mortgage.

Local business news...in brief
• Elizabeth Casady, M.P.A., P.A.H.M., has completed the Certified in Healthcare Compliance Examination, thereby earning the designation of C.H.C.; Casady is the director of operations and compliance officer for the Upper Peninsula Health Plan, a managed-care organization serving the entire Upper Peninsula.
• Ishpeming city manager Al Bakalarski and DDA chairman Jesse Bell announced the appointment of Dan J. Mitchell as the new Main Street Director; Mitchell is a native of Ishpeming and graduated with a BSBA and MS from Northern Michigan University.
• Range Financial Corporation has declared a quarterly dividend of $1 per share payable on September 15 to the shareholders of record on September 1, 2007; this is the third quarterly dividend paid in 2007.
• William Thum of Superior Productions returned from a week-long training program in Chicago and is now a “Certified Court Video Specialist” after having completed all requirements of the American Guild of Court Videographers for certification as a forensic videographer.

Correction
The August 2007 MM story, “Michigamme’s steamer comes home,” the Michigamme Steamer Fund team actually had raised $35,000. The team has now raised more than $52,000.

8-18 Medai book reviews for kids by kids

Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot
Published by Harper Teen, 260 Pages
In the small town of Eastport (Connecticut), quahogs are what matter most to the residents. The quahog (a bivalve clam) is what the town is known for since the beginning of time, but the Quahogs (the football team) is really the town’s pride and joy. As far as Katie Ellison is concerned, life would just be better if neither of them existed.
Unfortunately, quahogs and Quahogs do exist, and both are near the source of the havoc-wreaked world Katie creates for herself. Ever since the town’s football team (that is worshiped like gods) had to forfeit the championship four years ago, life in Eastport has not been the same.
The town prefers to sweep all the issues surrounding the game under the rug and pretend nothing ever happened. Katie’s all too willing to oblige, no matter what it takes. However, to do this, Katie finds herself compromising her integrity and begins bending the truth a bit to help her along the way. Well, bending might be too loose of a term here; lying probably describes her actions much better.
Katie sees her actions only as a way to help other people. Sometimes, she reasons, the truth is too much for people to handle. Soon though, an old friend, Tommy Sullivan, who was chased out of town four years ago during the football crisis, comes back to shock the town. Tommy’s first mission is to reacquaint himself with Katie.
Through a rocky start to the rekindling of their friendship to the beginning of a more serious relationship, Tommy shows Katie that it’s never too late to admit you’ve made a mistake and that nothing is worth compromising your individuality and beliefs.
Overall, this is a great book to start off the school year. It has a carefree plot with a hidden meaning and is good for reminding girls not to compromise yourself to make others happy.
I recommend this book for girls twelve to eighteen because it has a slightly mature story that may not be suitable for younger readers.
—Emily Stulz, 15

A word to the wise
Verbum satis sapientibus: A word to the wise is sufficient
Are you ready for October? It’s a curious month, its weather changing daily and often in the same day, three or four times. Even the name is oddly chosen, in that October should be the eighth and not the tenth month, since octo means eight in Latin.
Thus October should be December, or the tenth month, as it was in the old Julian calendar. And sometimes October will feel like December, when it’s not like August or April.
A wonderfully peculiar month it is, and this notion leads us with dubious logic to this month’s subject: odd words, words curious and quaint, to amuse and divert your friends.
For instance, October often means the cold and flu season is nigh (pronounced like high), a word meaning near in time or place and going back at least to Beowulf in the tenth century. It was once a very common word, so much so that it could be used as adjective, adverb or preposition, and sometimes even as a verb.
By the 1900s, however, it was old fashioned. Even in the century before that, it smacked of archaic poetry, like methinks. In fact, Shelley, who appreciated medieval lore, once employed both in one line: “Methinks she must be nigh.”
Also in the 1820s, the American novelist James Fenimore Cooper regularly affected the word nigh, as for example in The Last of the Mohicans: “They had reached a bay, nigh the northern termination of the lake.”
As for the coming cold and flu season, my Great-Aunt Agnes would be likely to complain not of influenza but of the grippe (grip), a virus resembling the flu or a severe cold. The first use I discovered was in the late 1700s in a description by a traveler of an epidemic in France.
The word’s spelling betrays its French origin. Later, in America, it sometimes came to be spelled sensibly, the way it sounds.
The grippe is not to be confused with catarrh (kuh-TAR), endemic in one branch of our family. This is or was an inflammation of the nose, throat or bronchial tubes, and accompanied by sneezing and mucous discharge.
A very old word and also of French origin, it might today be called a cold, though it tends to suggest a chronic condition.
Those earlier generations also contracted ague (AY-gyoo), which we know as a fever, with chills and shivering. Should we suffer from any of these afflictions, we are unlikely to gallivant (GAL-I-vant) as we were wont (WAHNT, meaning to be inclined or accustomed to do something).
As for gallivant, this word of obscure origin means to roam or go about for pleasure. It tends to suggest indecorous or frivolous activity, often with the opposite sex.
In my callow youth, my father would sometimes quiz me in the morning: “And where were you gallivantin’ around last night till 1:00 a.m.?”
In an instance from Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, a character decides he must take action, “Else I shall have my maid gallivanting with somebody who may rob the house.”
To stay healthy this season, you cannot gainsay (gane-SAY) the value of drinking plenty of liquids, getting your rest and avoiding gallivanting. Another old English word, the verb gainsay means to dispute or deny.
Like nigh, by the early nineteenth century it was largely a literary and romantic sort of term, which made it apt for novelist Sir Walter Scott, one of whose characters advises that we “submit to that which we cannot gainsay.”
There is certainly no gainsaying that, to prepare for winter in these northern climes, it behooves us to dress warm, or as Homer’s heroes used to say, to gird our loins.

Word for the month
Fulsome (FULL-some), an adjective meaning offensive or disgusting, either to our senses or spirit. The word has survived for a millennium in our language. Here Shakespeare’s contemporary Francis Bacon uses it in describing certain plants: “They are commonly of rank and fulsome smell, as mayflowers and white lilies.”
—Gerald Waite

Editor’s Note: Questions or comments are welcome by writing MM or at marquettemonthly@marquettemonthly.com

MM

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